French property form deadline put off for another 24 hours

Tax website impots.gouv.fr has been hit with technical issues today, which has led the authorities to put back the new property declaration deadline by another day.

That means that if you own property in France and have yet to complete the obligatory biens immobiliersprocess you now have until midnight tomorrow (August 1) instead of tonight (July 31).

The requirement to complete a one-off declaration of property ownership this year has been publicised since January, and an extra month to do so was given after it was found that many owners had not done it by the original June 30 deadline.

However there have been problems today with connecting to the site, linked to many people trying to log on. Most people are expected to declare their properties online at impots.gouv.fr by clicking on biens immobiliers at the top of the page and fines could in theory be payable at €150 per property for not having done it.

So, if you have not yet declared, whether for example you have been waiting for website log-ins to connect to your account, or perhaps due to internet difficulties, it would be advisable to do so today or tomorrow, if possible. In many cases it is mostly a case of validating the information already held by the tax office, with a few clicks.

The formality applies to both residents of France and non-residents and is for all nationalities.

‘Service temporarily unavailable, try later’

Many people have reported technical difficulties with the website today, which the tax services say is due to the large amount of people trying to use it. On Saturday, financial media Les Echos cited ‘union sources’ as saying that about a third of declarations were still thought not to be completed.

BFMTV earlier today reported that the site was showing that it was undergoing maintenance, however it said it was still possible to access relevant services, in this case by clicking on the link for biens immobiliers.

However, when we tried this the website stated that the service was temporarily unavailable and we should try later.

It is as a result of these difficult conditions that the tax service says it is now possible "to do your declaration without penalties until August 1, inclusive, up to midnight for the procedure online".

Key points to remember

Bear in mind, if you do still have to complete the form, that the tax services have stated that the priority for this declaration is to complete the section about the way your French property is used, notably if it is a main or second home, or rented out.

The key factor here is the usage as of January 1, 2023 because the tax offices want to make sure they are correctly billing (or not billing) this year’s taxe d’habitation. This is no longer payable on main homes.

They say that if you think there may be an issue with a property’s description, you should not delay signing off (confirming) the declaration but rather draw the perceived problem to your tax office’s attention later, preferably by using a private message from your personal space.

If, however, you find you are unable to complete the formality, we suggest:

• If you are in France, try calling the tax office helpline on 0809 401 401. Press 0 after the explanation, then 1. After another long explanation, press 1 for people who are ‘having difficulties with declaring online’. Note however, that the line could well be busy today.
• Otherwise, you can try calling your own tax office, using the contact number from a previous local property bill.
• You could also call into your tax office in person, if appropriate, and/or seek help from your local branch of France Services.
• Another good option is to send a message to the tax office via your personal online space, explaining that you were unable to make your declaration today, and (briefly) why. This message will be dated today and will help to show your good faith. This option obviously presumes you can log in.

It is also worth remembering that the tax authorities have previously stated that they will be lenient and do not expect to levy fines in this first year of the formality.

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